Tag: Diet

So last Monday I started my new diet on a quest to lose 40 pounds. I’m sure all seven of you that read my story have been eagerly awaiting an update on my progress. Well…are you ready? My results so far have been pretty similar to the last several times I started a new diet. Yes I know, they aren’t called diets these days. It’s a lifestyle change…or something like that. The bad news is I wasn’t quite perfect on my new eating and exercise program as I had planned.

WHAT WENT RIGHT?

I did quite well through the first four days of the week. I logged my weight each morning using the My Fitness Pal app, as well as recording all of my meals. I also didn’t forget to log the one minute of burpees I did. I even drank my 100 plus ounces of water, and that actually continued throughout the rest of the week. As someone who enjoys his soda, doing so well on the water drinking is a nice positive that I can put down from this most recent attempt. To top it off, I actually didn’t gain any additional weight for the week.

WHAT WENT WRONG

I also didn’t lose any weight at the end of my first week. Now I wonder why that was? It might have had something to do with deciding on Friday evening that I could just have one dinner out with the family. I’m not sure exactly how that dinner ended up with my eating most of my own food, and maybe just a chicken tender or two that the kids didn’t want. My lovely wife had a delicious steak that she just couldn’t finish, so I just had to try a bite…or maybe five of them. Finally, we had a bit of frozen custard for dessert. Ok that was a lie. It was one of those jumbo cups, and I ate it all. In my mind, I’m justifying this because it all just counts as one free meal. I’ll save you the details, but Saturday and Sunday weren’t much better. I had every intention of starting over again on Saturday, but for some reason I couldn’t say no to those freshly baked, and still warm doughnuts. The exercising didn’t go so well either. Does this stuff happen to everybody, or is it just me?

IT’S MONDAY AGAIN…AND THIS TIME I HAVE A BETTER PLAN

This past week could have definitely gone better for me, but I’m not one to give up just yet. As I mentioned in my initial post, failing to lose the weight isn’t an option. Being in my mid forties and already with high blood pressure and cholesterol, it is time to make a change. I have all my meals planned and prepped for the week, as well as some protein shakes and bars in case I am out and about at meal time. I also ran across a company called HealthyWage, which will pay you for losing weight. While plenty of other things should be motivating me, thus far those other things haven’t done a sufficient job with helping me get this weight off. I may as well try getting paid to lose some weight. After all, I’ve tried weight loss challenges with friends before and have won a couple times. Having a prize at the end has given me that extra push in the past. I am confident it will work this time.

HOW DOES HEALTHYWAGE WORK?

Why am I so confident? Because of the fact that I signed up for HealthyWage and wagered $75 per month for seven months that I would lose 28 pounds. Since I really want to lose 40 pounds, this leaves me a bit of wiggle room. If I don’t lose the weight, our favorite mom of nine kids is not gonna be happy with me, and none of us want that. She actually is very supportive and was all for me signing up, but I am smart enough to know that not reaching my goal is not an option. You see with HealthyWage, you essentially bet on yourself. It is free to sign up, and when you do, it brings up a calculator that lets you plug in the amount you want to lose(at least 10% of your body weight) and how long you would like your challenge to last(can be as little as six months, or as many as 18). It’s kind of fun to mess with, so I definitely recommend checking it out. If you sign up, and ultimately decide to compete in a challenge, please feel free to use this link. They have an excellent referral program that will pay both you and I $40 if you commit to one of their challenges. In my case, I will get a payout of $723 and it will cost me a total of $525, for a net profit of $198. That is a pretty decent profit, but I think it is the fact that I really don’t want to lose the $525 that will force me to stick to the plan this time. I won’t give a full review at this time, but I did do quite a bit of research to make sure this is all legit. HealthyWage has been spotlighted on the Today show, as several other shows. They have also received an A+ grade from the Better Business Bureau.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on my progress. Please let me know if you have done this program, and how you did with it. Feel free to leave comments on any successes and struggles you have had regarding your own weight loss.

My name is Steve and I am the dad of this group. I’ve had high blood pressure and high cholesterol in the past, but in recent years I had gotten it under control by eating a healthier diet. We recently returned from vacation, where I didn’t eat so good, and after a visit to the doctor, I’ve learned that my numbers have crept up on me again. I have nine children that I would like to see grow up, and I’m sure they would like to see me stick around as well. I’ve tried diets here and there over the years, but never seem to stick with them for more than a month or two. My job is pretty sedentary, so I don’t get up and move as often as I should. Over the next few months, I am going to document my progress and provide frequent updates on how I am doing. I currently weigh 195 and really should be closer to 155, which is a weight I haven’t been since high school. I am not going to do any type of fad diet. I am simply going to try to exercise each day, and eat healthy by cutting out the saturated fat and bad carbs to see if I can lose the weight. In addition to just getting healthy in general, we also have family pictures scheduled in July…and I need to look good for those. I will be tracking how much I exercise and what I eat, as well as inches lost and the amount of weight I am losing, so please be sure to follow along. Hopefully by putting this out here for all to see, that will hold me accountable to stay on task. I am getting to the age where heart attacks happen, so there is no more delaying. Of course, this will start on Monday…because all diets must start on Monday.